College Coaches Fail in The NBA

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Duke’s Coach K quickly dismissed the rumors that he would consider the Godfather offer from the Nets’ Russian playboy owner to coach and possibly be the GM of the New Jersey Nets. Why? Well, as much as Colin Cowherd wanted to try and make a topic for his radio show about how money could make Coach K and LeBron come to the eventual Brooklyn Nets and win titles together, not everyone can be bought. Coach K realized that his legacy is as a long-tenured coach at one institution where he has had tremendous success and there was minimal upside and maximum downside to trying his hand with the professionals. He was not a guy like Calipari or Pitino that had bounced from school to school and so a pro stop was just a big pay day along the road. He also knows these key reasons why college coaches do not have success in the pros very often.

I. Power
This is the biggest reason college coaches struggle in the pros. They are used to being the ultimate power with ultimate control over the roster, playing time and practice. In college, any and everything they say is the law, not just in the gym, but likely in the entire town where the school is located. The recent example was Urban Meyer’s handling of the media over a quote they printed. Urban is a big tough guy to intimidate the local Orlando college sports beat reporter. Do you really think the NY Post would take that crap? More importantly, the power structure is different in the locker room in the NBA. An NBA coach can’t use the juvenile punishment tactics that they use in college like taking away a player’s scholarship, removing him from the starting line up or dismissing him from the team. In most instances the players are making multiples of the coaches salary, so why would they listen to the coach? Did you really expect Vince Carter to listen to John Calipari?

This is a tough pill for the coach to swallow after he was given the biggest contract he’s ever gotten in his life and he is viewed as the savior by the local media. Then come in and command a locker room of guys that don’t have to respect you and guys that know the pro game is a different animal than the college game.

II. Different Offenses
I think every coach knows when they make the leap to the pros that the game itself is different and they need to make a tweak to the offense they were running in college. The NBA game is dominated by a two-man pick-and-roll game where the rest of the team is either spotting up or crashing the hoop. The college game is a more open court where an offense can hide players or highlight each players strength. Coaches in college have the ability to recruit the proper players to fit with their system, like Bo Ryan recruiting big men who do not have great post skills but are strong outside shooters which is essential in his swing offense. In the pros the coach takes over an already established roster full of guys in 3-5 year contracts and has to try and figure out how to run an offense around the guys he has. Yes, over time they can mold that roster into a team that fits their preferred offense, but the coaches rarely get that 4-5 year window that would be necessary. People would not be excited to see an intense drama movie with Tina Fey as the lead actress, but if you put her opposite Steve Carrell in a movie with a tremendous amount of physical humor and we’re talking about a highly entertaining movie.

III. Ego
The list of coaches that couldn’t hack it in the pros is a long list, and includes the full spectrum of quality of college coaches from very good to flash in the pan guys. Yet the result is generally the same whether it’s a college super star like Rick Pitino or John Calipari, a middle of the road guy like Mike Montgomery or a flash in the pan like Lon Kruger. They all end up back in college programs. The final thing that really hampers these coaches in their pro career is an outsized ego. Much like the power structure mentioned above, these coaches have huge egos because they have been pursued, recruited and wined and dined with the top of the line ammenities the NBA offers. Then they are thrown to the wolves and told they better win despite all the headwinds. That pressure and being unaccustomed to losing is a huge dent to those egos and can cause the coach to snap, like the infamous Rick Pitino “Larry Bird ain’t walkin’ through that door!” quote.

Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate: NCAA Championship

LOVE

- Like Audrina Patridge in a bikini, you don’t have to like her to admit she looks good. Duke played their best game of the season on Saturday night and absolutely dominated West Virginia. They were on fire from the perimeter, they dominated the boards and completely manhandled the supposedly tough Mountaineers team. The Blue Devils looked like a team that belonged in the NCAA Championship game and that’s where they will be tonight when they take on Butler. I’m done with predictions since my predictions have been worse than once Audrina opens her mouth.

- Congratulations to Ms. Jessica Mack for winning the first Sports Addict Bracket Challenge! She was the only person to pick Duke to win the title and regardless of the result tonight, she has locked up the title. She will win University of Wisconsin gear and a some Sports Addict swag.

- Play Ball!!!! It’s officially opening day!! People everywhere are playing hooky from work and firing up the grill at the tailgate outside the stadium. The start of the baseball season is always a poetic time – the smell of the grill, the smell of the freshly cut grass, the feel of the peanut shells crunching under your shoes, and the taste of that first or tenth flat Old Style beer……….(okay maybe my memories are more of the old County Stadium bleachers than it is the newer stadiums like Miller Park where you can get all the flavors of Lienie’s or a premium beer)

- The Lakers are struggling lately, causing concern after cruising along as the best team in the Western conference most of the year. Is the Ron Artest crazy train the reason? Is Kobe beginning to tire out? Is Lamar Odom running out of Skittles to keep his sugar high? Or did Lamar finally realize he married the ugly Kardashian sister and now that Kim is single he’s having second thoughts? Either way, the best part is that it opens up the Western Conference playoffs and it wouldn’t be overly surprising to see Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, San Antonio or Utah right up there with the Lakers.

- Coach K is NOT taking the Nets job. Yes, the Russian playboy owner of the Nets is offering a ridiculous amount of money – like $12 to $15 million per year. Yet at the end of the day, there is no upside for him going to the pros. He turned down the Lakers job in 2004 when they already had Kobe Bryant and Shaq on the roster. The Nets have Devin Harris and Robin Lopez. He will be able to coach as long as he wants at Duke and will never be fired. He has been there for 30 years. Why would he mess up his legacy with a failure with the Nets? The number of failed former college coaches includes current college coaching stars….Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Mike Montgomery. Eddie Murphy was a successful comedian and actor, but the worst decision he ever made was an attempted music career. A choice he probably regrets as much as Coach K would regret a move to the Nets.

HATE

- The Donovan McNabb trade is such an indictment of McNabb by the Eagles it is incredible. Not only did the Eagles feel McNabb is not good enough to lead them to the promised land, they also showed they don’t think he’s going to be that hard to beat by trading him within the division!! There are tremendous differences between this and the Packers trading Brett Favre, not the least of which is that Favre was a lock Hall of Famer, and Donovan is possibly in the discussion. The Packers also knew that Favre still had gas in the tank and therefore wanted no part of playing him and traded him out of the division and out of the conference to the Jets (Favre still weaseled his way back into the division a year later by faking retirement ….again) While the media is spinning it that the Eagles showed respect for McNabb by not trading him to the Raiders, I think they showed him extreme disrepect by trading him within the division. Or maybe they just noticed the decline from 54-19 (.740) as a starter from 2000-04 to 36-26-1 (.579) from 2005-2009, and 17 games missed in the most recent 4 years with only a 2-2 playoff record.

And let’s immediately put away the ridiculous thought that the Redskins may be better than the Eagles next year. It’s not even close. The Redskins have a horrid offensive line, have awful wide receivers (Santana Moss? Malcolm Kelly? Compared to DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin?), a talented TE coming off an injury, and a collection of washed up running backs – Clinton Portis, Larry Johnson and Willie Parker. The Eagles still have tremendously more talent than the Redskins, but Washington definitely improved with this trade. Putting Jessica Biel into a terribly written and directed movie with a weak supporting cast does not make it a great movie.

- The first national semi final game on Saturday night between Michigan State and Butler was a hideously ugly game. It was worse than watching former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich trying to turn on a computer or send a text on the Celebrity Apprentice. (side note – has anyone seen this? The guy was a former governor and has absolutely no idea how to operate a computer or a cell phone. Who knew that his lack of tech skills would be more appalling than that awkward haircut? What the …….) As visually appealing as the Duke victory was, the first game was the exact opposite. It was a slugfest between two stout defensive and physical teams, which we knew coming in. What we didn’t know was that Michigan State was going to lose the game more than Butler was going to win the game. Michigan State missed lay ups they don’t normally miss, missed free throws, turned the ball over in uncontested situations, and had some painful looking jumpshots (sorry Draymond Green, those were some hideous bricks you threw up from the top of the key). Butler shot 30% from the field and won the game. Michigan State shot only 42%. Ugh. Michigan State had 16 turnovers, 5 of which were credited to Korie Lucious and I think the score keeper was being generous.

That being said, I don’t like whining about the officiating, but Green was fouled on his last drive to the hoop. As a coach, with 20-odd seconds remaining and down by one, you want a shot going to the basket so you either make the shot or get fouled and get to the line. Green did exactly that and got hit on the arm and didn’t get the call. It didn’t cost them the game – the turnovers and shooting 10-18 from the free throw line did that – but it was a terrible missed call at a very big moment.

- I watched a little bit of the opening night game between the Yankees and Red Sox last night, and nothing was more annoying than the ESPN feed being blacked out, forcing me to watch the game on the YES network. Michael Kay is among the worst announcers I have ever heard in my life and he ruined the opening night experience for me. He barely pays attention to the game and instead spends the entire broadcast name dropping to show off that he’s buddies with the players, and babbling on about random topics that don’t pertain to the game in front of him. It’s like he’s the annoying guy at the bar that keeps rambling on about the time he met a celebrity when you’re just trying to watch the game. We get it Michael, you have an enormous ego and you know a bunch of athletes that you sometimes have dinner with. He’s like the rest of the Jersey Chasers that used to go to the KK in Madison to try and work the football players in the back corner of the bar. Instead of the majestic call from John Miller and Joe Morgan, I was forced to listen to this idiot. I couldn’t stand more than a couple innings before I switched it off and never returned.

- The Milwaukee Bucks were playing the best basketball they had played since 2001. They were hot and have developed a chemistry between coach Scott Skiles and their team combining young talent like Andrew Bogut and Brandon Jennings with veterans Jerry Stackhouse and John Salmons. They were poised to put a major scare into either Boston or Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs. And now that has all gone up in flames when Andrew Bogut shattered his elbow in an injury that brought back memories for me of Larry Krystowiak blowing out his knee in Game 3 of the playoffs against the Pistons in 1989. Krystowiak worked hard to rehab the knee, including not cutting his hair in the back until he got back into a game the following season. So maybe Bogut could grow a mullet for next season?

Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate: Down to Four

LOVE

- Coaching carried teams to the Final Four this year:

o This is probably the most surprising and least talented team Tom Izzo has taken to the big stage, but like all of his teams they were tougher and more disciplined than their opponents. His decision to intentionally miss the final free throw after taking a one point lead with 1.8 seconds left was genius, despite the officials screwing up the clock (you have to have possession to call time out, and the clock is supposed to stop when the official recognizes the time out, not when it is called. According to the refs, that all took 0.2 seconds). However the other positive outcome from Izzo’s decision was that Tennessee couldn’t run the baseline like they could after a made basket. As much as it pains me to say it, Izzo is THE best coach in all of college basketball, hands down, without question. 6 Final Fours in 15 years is beyond impressive.

o Mike Krzyzewski has taken some heat in the past decade that he has taken his focus off of leading Duke to the Final Four and that he is coasting after all of his success in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Well, he’s back in the Final Four with a team that plays as well together as any team in recent memory. This is his 11th trip to the Final Four with the Blue Devils and you can very easily make the case that the winner of the Duke-West Virginia semifinal will be the overwhelming favorite to cut down the nets. He is the Cindy Crawford of coaches in that he continually gets it done even as the years pile up.

o West Virginia confused and confounded Kentucky with their 1-3-1 zone and Bob Huggins outcoached John Calipari. As great of a recruiter as Calipari has proved to be, he had no X’s or O’s to solve a defense where the base at the bottom of the zone was a point guard and Coach Cal couldn’t find a way to get his big men the ball against the undersized Joe Mazzulla. Bob Huggins is back in the Final Four for the first time since 1992. But don’t listen to any interviews with him this week because he sounds as enthusiastic about it as Russell Crowe is about the papparazzi.

- Speaking of West Virginia, the prospect of hearing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” blasting from the Lucas Oil Arena while the Mountaineers cut down the nets is becoming more and more of a reality. Nothing like a little John Denver magic for a theme song.

- It is probably part of the Coach K leadership, but the poise of Duke was among the key contributors to their victory over Baylor. The game was already teetering on slipping away with 1:30 left when Baylor gets a technical foul for absolutely stupidity. It iced a game that was slipping away. Why are you trying to intimidate a guy and get up in his face when you’re down 7 with under 2 minutes left in the game? As athletically talented as Baylor is, I’m pretty sure most of their team could not spell Duke if you gave them the D and the U.

- If you need something to fire you up for work this week (especially if you’re anywhere in the Eastern US where rain is punishing the entire coast), just check out the Gus Johnson soundboard and listen to his classic quotes and yells. Among my favorites is the “Rise and Fire” or the “Slipper” where Gus proclaims “…and the slipper still fits!” with the excitement of a guy who just got out of the movie where Amanda Seyfried get naked.

HATE

- Is this the worst Final Four every? While we have coaching stars in this year’s Final Four, there are not a lot of intriguing player story lines or very exciting players to watch. There is not an All-American candidate in the Final Four, which has only happened once in the past 10 years. In 2006, when no #1 seeds made the tournament (#2 UCLA, #3 Florida, #4 LSU & #11 George Mason) there were no All-American candidates, and that Final Four was not very interesting. Even in 1980, the other time when a #1 seed did not make the Final Four, Joe Barry Carroll of Purdue and Darrell Griffith of Louisville were All-American candidates. However, despite the surprise teams and lack of exciting players, it is tough to say this is the worst Final Four ever (despite my texts asking exactly that to my brother and Sal on Saturday night). At least this year has the coaches and a #1 seed still playing in it.

- Well I mentioned last week that West Virginia wanted to ugly up the basketball like Sarah Jessica Parker to have a chance to win. Well, they definitely did that on Saturday night. The Mountaineers did not hit a single 2 point basket in the entire first half of the game, going 0-16 from inside the arc. And Kentucky didn’t hit a 3 point shot until there were less than 4 minutes left in the entire game, ending up shooting 4-32 from beyond the arc. That was about as painful as your girlfriend forcing you to watch that Remember Me movie with the vampire guy and some random girl.

- Why do teams call timeouts after baskets in the final minute when they are down more than five points? For the past few years, the clock stops after a made basket, so there is no need to call time out. I get the concept of “setting up your defense” but when you are already down more than 5 points, you probably need the scramble to have a better chance at a steal and a turnover. You are going to foul immediately, so why bother with the timeout? Wouldn’t you be better served to save the time out for when you potentially get a rebound or steal in the final seconds and need to set up a play or stop the clock for a full-court heave? Just a random thing I noticed that teams call the time out to stop the clock when it is already stopped.

- Did anyone else notice the crowd in Houston for the Duke-Baylor game? It was heavily in favor of Baylor, which makes sense with the proximity to their Waco campus, but it also appeared very sparse on television. The game was played in the cavernous Reliant Stadium – home of the NFL’s Texans – so maybe it was just some of the angles that the television cameras were catching, but there appeared to be an inordinate number of empty seats for a regional final game. Is that a bad sign for next year’s Final Four which will be played in that exact venue? There will likely be the same neutral court issues in the Final Four next year, so will it be a full stadium?